“The house of the forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 7:2; 10:17; 2 Chr. 9:16) was probably Solomon’s armory, and was so called because the wood of its many pillars came from Lebanon, and they had the appearance of a forest. (See BAALBEC.)

Hebrew: horesh, denoting a thicket of trees, underwood, jungle, bushes, or trees entangled, and therefore affording a safe hiding-place. place. This word is rendered “forest” only in 2 Chr. 27:4. It is also rendered “wood”, the “wood” in the “wilderness of Ziph,” in which david concealed himself (1 Sam. 23:15), which lay southeast of Hebron. In Isa. 17:9 this word is in Authorized Version rendered incorrectly “bough.”

Hebrew: pardes, meaning an enclosed garden or plantation. Asaph is (Neh. 2:8) called the “keeper of the king’s forest.” The same Hebrew word is used Eccl. 2:5, where it is rendered in the plural “orchards” (Revised Version, “parks”), and Song of Songs 4:13, rendered “orchard” (Revised Version marginal note, “a paradise”).

“The forest of the vintage” (Zech. 11:2, “inaccessible forest,” or Revised Version “strong forest”) is probably a figurative allusion to Jerusalem, or the verse may simply point to the devastation of the region referred to.

The forest is an image of unfruitfulness as contrasted with a cultivated field (Isa. 29:17; 32:15; Jer. 26:18; Hos. 2:12). Isaiah (10:19, 33, 34) likens the Assyrian host under Sennacherib (q.v.) to the trees of some huge forest, to be suddenly cut down by an unseen stroke.